Shark Frenzy
by Orthrus of Erytheia
Summary: Naruto is getting mobbed but instead of being caught, he escapes. While he was not harmed the villagers forced him out of the village where he meets someone who just so happened to be looking for a student. Konoha will regret forcing out what could of been their greatest protector, because now they find themselves swimming with sharks. Challenge by ShadowStar91


**Chapter 1**

**Meeting the Shark**

**Hello everyone my name is Orthrus and I bring to you Shark Frenzy! For anyone who has seen this story before, don't worry I'm the original writer. The older version was simply deleted. I do not claim that this is a good start in any way, and in my honest opinion I do beleive it's a steaming pile of shit. The update schedule will be choppy as I write whenever the hell I feel like it. :D**

Konoha is revered as the most powerful ninja village in the Elemental Nations for their strong ninja and the fact that they had yet to lose any war or major battle in history as of yet. They were also known as the more peaceful and kind of all the villages. While that may be true in some ways this conception of the village is true it should also be noted that the people of the leaf are only human, and if there is one thing that has been proven by time about humans it's that they fear what they don't understand.

One thing they definitely don't understand is the sealing mechanisms used to contain the Kyuubi, a giant nine tailed demon fox and the strongest of the bijuu, into a small child. This of course means they fear that these seals that they had never even seen wouldn't be able to keep a ten story tall demon fox at bay inside of an orphan child. When people fear something that fear makes them feel weakness. That weakness in themselves makes them angry and that is what creates hate.

Hate is a violent thing.

So as time passed rumors were created and eventually everyone in Konoha had learned of the evil fox wearing the skin of a boy, waiting for when they let their guard down so that it could finish what it started. It was merely days after this child's birth that the first step was taken to eradicate this abomination, however it failed due to the interference of their village leader the Hokage. But even with the most powerful person in the village protecting the young boy attempts to take his life never ended. For seven long years the citizens of Konoha had been trying to rid themselves of the stain on the reputation of their home; a demon playing the wolf in sheep's clothing.

This "demon" is a child named Naruto. With bright blond hair and cerulean blue eyes, had he not been cursed at birth, he probably would have been well liked, had a nice family and made a happy couple into proud parents. This was not to be unfortunately.

Currently he was running as fast as his legs could take him from a large mob of villagers at least 50 in numbers, which wasn't very fast considering his age and height. Still he ran, but his pursuers were gaining on him quickly. It was at this point that a young blond made a decision that would change his life, for better or worse. He decided he wouldn't stay where he wasn't wanted, a place in which he was glared at, beaten, poisoned, burned amongst other things that would make most go insane. He hesitated with that line of thought when the smiling faces of the Sandaime, the Ichiraku's and Inoichi flashed through his mind. His grandfather figures, his sister in all but blood, and his good friend and therapist would be sad and miss him if he left. He heard the sound of a bottle of alcohol breaking as well as the shouts of the mob echo from behind him.

"Let's skin him alive!" An obviously drunk man shouted, which was followed by the roaring approval of his comrades.

Never mind, he would just have to apologize to them later on.

If there was one thing Naruto had learned during his life in Konoha it was the layout of the place. In order for a snowball to survive in hell it needed to know which way to roll to be able to avoid the fire. He knew every nook and cranny in the village; he could make a ten minute walk across the market place into a two minute twisting, turning path through shortcuts and alleyways and not ever lose his bearings.

He quickly took in his surroundings; they were at the southern half of the residential districts. Basically it was the slums. Perfect.

It was Sunday. The southern gate was guarded by Hideki and Eiji on Sunday's, two chunnins who had the bad habit of sleeping through night shift. He had meant to say something to the Old Man about them but now he was glad it had slipped his mind to do so.

It would much too simple to escape the village once he lost this mob that was steadily getting closer, now only about 30 feet behind him. He quickly turned into an alley to his left before diving behind a couple of trash cans, behind them an open manhole sat. A quick escape he had set up when he was five. He moved down the ladder fast as he heard the mob make their way into the alley. It wouldn't be long until they started knocking things over looking for him, and eventually the would find the manhole found the man hole.

Hopping down into the sewer water he ran down the sewer for a short distance until he couldn't see anything; however it was then that he could hear the shouts of the mob finding the manhole. As he ran he stuck to the wall running as close to it as possible and running his hand over it until he felt a bump of his hand hitting a sticking out brick. He couldn't help but smirk as he found the mark in the wall he had made before dropping to the ground and rolling into a carved out piece of the wall.

Now all he had to do was wait for a drunken group of villagers that were blind as bats and had no idea this hole was even here to pass by him. It was child's play.

* * *

Naruto panted as he continued through the forests of Fire Country, now at slow walk as he had been traveling for hours. Once the mob had passed he had waited a few minutes before going back the way he came and easily slipping past the sleeping guards. The sun was just peeking its rays over the land signifying that it was morning, meaning he had been moving from the village for at least a day. He was actually surprised that no one had come looking for him yet, someone had to think it was odd for him to disappear so suddenly right? Even then the Hokage sent someone to check on him occasionally to see if he needed anything.

But he put it off as a lucky coincidence and kept moving. Little did he know that the old Hokage hadn't checked on him because he learned that the Uchiha were planning a coup the day before. He had been negotiating with them this entire day.

_'Still, I'm kinda glad he hasn't noticed, this one day of being out in the wilderness has been more peaceful than any time in my whole life." _he thought with a smile, looking around at the scenery of the forest. If there was one thing he liked about Konoha and the surrounding area it was the beautiful and lush green forests, always calming and peaceful.

"I promise myself right now, as long I can help it I'll never go back."

* * *

It had been a full and tiring, yet rewarding month of survival after he had spoken those words and every day since Naruto had been living off the land. Killing and eating his food taught him how to keep himself fed out in situations such as theses where food wasn't a shopping trip away. Having to find water and berries, taught him valuable skills about foraging and how to find signs of water. Fighting off wild animals taught him what to do to avoid danger when it was literally surrounding you.

But the most rewarding thing was his happiness. The food out in the wilderness of the Land of Fire's forests was much more fresh than back in Konoha, the water was pure and not tainted in a failed attempt to kill him, and his strength, speed, intelligence(all of the basic ninja skills) were greatly increased. He had even got a lot taller! Now being the average height of a seven year old, instead of the average height of a five year old. All in all he was really happy about leaving the village, of course he would miss the Hokage, the Ichiraku's and Inoichi but he was leading a much better life in the forest.

ROAR!

Though he could do without the wild tigers.

* * *

After the many years of being Hokage, and a ninja in general, Sarutobi Hiruzen had learned to trust his instincts, after all it was them that had saved him several times in his life threatening battles throughout his lengthy service to Konoha.

So when the day after the Uchiha massacre he felt something was wrong he acted on that feeling and realized something terrifying. It had been an entire month since he had seen or heard from Naruto. This was followed by a grave feeling of doom and he immediately pulled out his crystal ball focusing in on the jinchuuriki's unique chakra signature…and found nothing. Naruto, no matter where he was, would always show up if he was within the walls of Konoha, and considering that he had just preformed ten full sweeps of the village it was quite obvious he wasn't. Panic flew through his body as he stood so quickly that he knocked his chair over and immediately barked out orders.

"Inu! Karasu! Have either of you seen Uzumaki Naruto?" Two shadows flew from dark corners of the room stopping in front of him, both in black outfits. One with a dog mask the other with a crow.

"No sir, the ANBU division has been busy keeping the Uchiha's planned coup under wraps and away from public ears. Why sir?" Sarutobi said nothing, and with a grim face and dark eyes raised his hand.

"Gather the council for a crisis alert meeting."

"Understood."

* * *

"Hiruzen, we demand the reason why this council meeting was called." Koharu almost yelled out rising from her seat. They had just been through a crisis, the threat of a civil war at the very least. Yet it was only one day later and they were in another crisis meeting. It was maddening! Everyone on the council was exhausted and hadn't had decent quality time with loved ones for days. Any other words she had meant to speak were caught in her throat as she saw the look on her old teammates face.

"The reason, Elder Koharu," Sarutobi muttered lowly as he rose and revealed a picture of Naruto from his robes, "is because of the disappearance of one Uzumaki Naruto."

You could have heard a pin drop. For several moments no sound was made in the room as the information sunk in. And just a quickly as silence had fallen over the room, all hell broke loose.

"WHAT!?" Was the shout that echoed out of the mouths of all in the room. A blond man shot up from his seat slamming his hand on the table, startling those who knew him with his ferocity.

"Hokage-sama how could this happen? I thought you had the Black Ops check on him daily?" Inoichi shouted out across the table, his question was followed by many others of almost the same context, so many words were reverberating throughout the room the Sandaime thought he might become deaf from the noise. He quickly threw his hand out, sweeping it in front of him in a motion that had been made far too many times in his time as a Hokage, and with a loud shout of, "SILENCE!" all was as quiet as before. The people who had stood sat quickly, the tone of their Hokage's voice was one they had heard before. He only used it when he meant not to be trifled with.

"For the past month all of my ANBU forces were directed towards keeping the Uchiha revolt away from public ears, no matter what job they were doing. If it wasn't vital to the village it wasn't a priority. From several interrogations of repeat offenders against Naruto's wellbeing we have found that another mob formed to track him down. Though they claim to be unsuccessful in actually catching him. Past that event no sightings of Naruto have happened yet and ANBU have been unable to track him down even with the cooperation of the Inuzuka and Hyuuga clan. There are only two conclusions to this story, the first that the civilians somehow managed to lie to Ibiki and Anko, or..." Hiruzen was reluctant to continue on that line of thinking. Shikaku, the leader of the Nara clan, finished his sentence.

"Or he escaped the village and is possibly dead or in the hands of unknown forces." Hiruzen sighed before nodding to Shikaku.

"Sadly that is most likely the situation. Naruto-kun has been missing for at least three weeks and while we were unsuccessful in finding him in the village, many Inuzuka and Hyuuga were deployed minutes ago to try to locate him in the forests surrounding us. We are hoping he is still in the area." Again a silence enveloped the room many looking down at the table in thought. The silence was broken when Danzo cleared his throat, forcing all eyes to him.

"So Hiruzen what are we to do about this situation?" He asked, his one visible eye trailed onto his old rival who sighed for the second time that day.

"There's nothing we can do Danzo other than wait. I was simply informing you, our hope rests in the Inuzuka tracking squads." Tsume, the Inuzuka matriarch, let out a growl before addressing the council herself.

"Even Kuromaru and I couldn't get a trail on him. If he was within ten miles of Konoha's forests we would have smelled him. Unless of course he's been out there so long that his smell has changed to that of his environment, at that point sadly my clansmen won't be any help in the search. Practically our only hope of finding him now is the Hyuuga clan." Hiashi nodded his head at that just before a loud banging sound echoed throughout the room. Everyone's head turned toward Inoichi when he slammed his fist on the table again, he was gritting his teeth and had his eyes shut tight.

"It's our fault." He muttered, before his eyes opened and he glared at the table. "No matter how much we try to cover our asses, if we had done more for Naruto-kun in the first place we wouldn't be having this conversation in the first place! I was the kid's therapist for years and whenever I tried to bring it up the issue of his treatment you all would ignore the problem! What are even surprised about, he was practically tortured daily!" Everyone averted their eyes when he looked up knowing he was right, they had pretty much ignored the growing list of offenses toward their local jinchuuriki, pushing it to the back of their minds for more pressing matters such as their clans financial standings within the village.

"You're correct Inoichi-san but as they say hindsight is twenty-twenty. What was done cannot be undone and due to our ignorance a valuable asset of our village has been lost. It is on this sour note that I must bring this crisis meeting to a close, I'll bring you back in a few days for an update." Immediately Inoichi stormed out of the room, followed by the Hokage and his guard. It was a sad day in Konoha as they lost what could have been the most loyal and powerful ninja to ever exist in the leaf.

* * *

Many things could be said about Kisame Hoshigaki, like that he was extremely blood thirsty monster that can kill happily without a second glace or any feeling at all. That he was incredibly scary and one of the most dangerous missing ninja in the nations, and that he looked peculiarly like a shark. All of this is true.

But while he may be eccentric in a fight, Kisame was in no way crazy. For one thing Kisame knew he was strong, yet he also knew that he was a missing-nin with a large bounty on his head that could end up meeting his match one of these days and die. He also knew that in no way was he getting younger, he was only 29 but his response to that was that thousands of ninja just as strong as him had died a lot younger than he was now.

This brought him to his current predicament. He needed a student. An heir to the Hoshigaki way of fighting, someone who he could trust enough to give Samehada to when he died.

He was actually heading toward Grass country, having heard there was a family of suiton users that had recently moved there when Samehada notified him of a very high chakra level nearby. Reaching out with his own senses he as well could feel it, and since he was a moderately curious person he decided to check it out. Hopping through the trees he came across a small clearing with a river passing through it. Drinking from this river was a red fire bear, a species of bear known only to the forest of fire country that were notorious for slaughtering people, even genin level ninja, when agitated.

He glanced around the area hoping to catch a glimpse of the source of the chakra he had felt. What he saw next shocked him to the core and yet had him grinning like a maniac. He had found what he was looking for. The apprentice of the shark.

* * *

A very small amount of time had passed since the council meeting and Naruto was doing his daily routine of finding lunch. Usually it was a rabbit, maybe a deer, or fish. Today though he was feeling unusually confident so he set his eyes on something a little riskier, a giant bear.

_'I'm insane aren't I?'_ he thought, laughing to himself mentally. His grip tightened on his sole weapon, a rusty kunai that he had found imbedded deep in a tree about two weeks after his escape. He had of course sharpened the dull blade on rocks he had found and it quickly became his most valuable possession for his survival. The versatile tool making things much easier in his life in the wilderness.

He crawled slightly closer towards his target, moving silently through the bushes along the edge of the clearing that the bear's back was turned to. Making sure not to gain its attention, he slowly rose before lunging out toward the bear, his kunai in a reverse grip.

With a grunt he landed on the back of the bear's shoulders digging his sandals into its fur and wrapping his arms around its neck. The red fire bear let out a startled roar and started flailing until it finally flung Naruto off, but not before the child had buried his knife deep into its neck. Letting out a wet gurgle from its throat the bear turned toward its attacker and located the young boy who had stabbed it. The animal was bleeding out fast yet it jumped at him in an attempt to deal as much damage to its attacker as it could before it succumbed to its injuries.

It swung its paw down at Naruto who quickly rolled out of the way of the desperate bear, who fell off balance when its attack missed and landed on the ground in a heap. Acting quickly Naruto jumped on the bear's back and ripped his kunai out of its throat then jammed it back through the back of its neck holding it in place, deep in the esophagus of the beast. Though the animal thrashed around for a while eventually even the mighty bear bled out. Its movements slowly came to a halt, and the disturbing half gurgle, half growl sounds ceased.

Pulling his weapon out of the animal's neck slowly he waited for a few seconds to make sure it was really dead, and after confirming this rolled off its body with a grin. Tonight he would eat well. He waited a minute to catch his breath before the blond ninja to be rose to his feet and walked over to the bushes he had emerged from earlier, dragging out a wooden platform. After some effort he had managed to roll the bear onto it and grabbed the rope at the front before excitedly dragging the bear off through the woods.

* * *

Kisame's grin threatened to split his face in half, the chakra source he had stumbled upon was a child that couldn't be any younger than seven years old but had just slaughtered one of the most dangerous animals known to man! And as if to sweeten the deal the kid had done it in a way that was extremely similar to his silent killing technique. He went for a vital and easily accessible area then, due to the bear's resilience, had effectively avoided its counter and again swiftly damaged it in a way that was sure to finish the job. The kid seemed to be custom made for the ninja arts, begging to be molded into whatever skill set he was introduced to.

He stealthily followed the blond to his small campsite, which looked to have been setup for quite some time due to the animal bones piled up next to a fire pit that had been dug into the ground. He watched as the boy made his way slowly toward the center of his camp, after all he was dragging a bear that weighed a couple hundred pounds.

Once he arrived next to his fire pit the kid unceremoniously dropped the rope that was attached to the platform. Walking over to a tent that was comprised of sticks driven into the ground covered with a blanket of animal skins.

Had the Monster of the Hidden Mist not made up his mind about the brat when he saw his skillful take down of the animal, he had now. Probably even more appealing to him than the blonds prowess towards the ninja arts was the fact that he seemed to know how to survive and he thanked Kami for that. A future lesson that would have taken a while to fully instill into a child was already ingrained into this kids head. At that he laughed lowly before deciding he had been hiding out in the trees for far too long and thus hopped down into the clearing just as the brat had exited his tent and made his way to his soon to be meal so he could skin it with his now clean kunai.

He almost burst out laughing when the kid nearly jumped out of his skin when he saw him.

"THE FUCK!"

* * *

"THE FUCK!"

Naruto gaped at the...what he could only guess was a man in _some_ ways. The new arrival to his camp was literally the tallest person he had ever seen, standing at an impressive 6'4" and had blue skin. _BLUE SKIN._ And _gills!_ Seriously! He also had a huge bandaged object on his back that looked like it could squish him in seconds. Even worse was now this giant man was laughing like a maniac.

_'Was he the unwanted love child between a great white and Goliath or something?' _He thought in his head, not even daring to let that thought slip out. He did NOT want the man-fish getting pissed at him.

"Who are you?" he asked cautiously feeling extremely nervous looking at the blue man in front of him.

"The names Kisame."

"..."

"..."

"Why are you here?" Kisame felt the awkward vibe in the air and sighed in his head, how do you word something like this?

"Well I'm just gonna tell you the truth, kid I saw what you did to that bear." At this Naruto shuffled himself a bit closer to his dinner narrowing his eyes.

"It's mine." Kisame let out another bellowing laugh; his sharp teeth glistening which really freaked Naruto out, but intrigued him as well.

"Don't worry about that kid I'm not here to steal your food, I'm here to give you an offer." Kisame said, moving closer to the blond who tensed a little before relaxing with a sigh.

"What is it?" Kisame smiled at that. It was way easier on him if the kid was willing to hear him out.

"Like I said I saw what you did to that bear and I have to say I'm impressed, you pulled that off pretty well. I also see your living out here in the woods, so I came here to ask you to be my apprentice." The missing-nin announced watching for the blond's reaction. Naruto tilted his head to the side.

"Apprentice? Like a student? What are you gonna teach me?"

"Ninja techniques kid. I'm a missing ninja from Kirigakure," He reached up and tapped his headband the mist symbol was there but with a deep scratch through the middle of it, "and it just so happens that I'm looking for a worthy person to learn what I've got to teach, and I have to say brat, you seem like the best option yet."

Naruto closed his eyes in thought; on one hand this brought back fond memories of his single dream of being a shinobi. And while he loved the forest it did get boring when he wasn't hunting. On the other hand he didn't know this Kisame guy or what kind of techniques he wanted to teach him yet. He decided to test the guy and see what happened. Pulling back his hand with the kunai in it as fast as he possibly could he let it fly towards the fish man's face. He didn't even see Kisame move before his own weapon was held at his throat, black eyes of the former mist ninja looking amused as he gazed down at Naruto who grinned.

"That was really cool. Are you going to teach me how to do that?" Kisame couldn't help it and found himself grinning for what must have been the hundredth time that day.

"This and so much more." Blue eyes lit up, as Kisame pulled the knife off his neck.

"I-"

"Sorry Uzumaki, but you're coming with us."

The two in the clearing turned sharply as a Hyuuga branch member and an Inuzuka along with his dog partner stepped out of the surrounding forest. Kisame growled to himself. He had let his guard down in the presence of the kid, despite the fact that the two in front of him weren't anywhere near strong enough to stand up to him, it still pissed him off that he didn't sense them. Although their presence did confuse him. What was so important about this kid that Konoha would go out of their way to send their ninja of their most prestigious clans after him? Glancing over to the whiskered boy he saw him tense up and take a step back. Narrowing his eyes he turned back towards the other two who had started approaching the two of them.

"By orders directly from the Hokage we were sent to bring you home Uzumaki. It was foolish of you to leave, you had to know you wouldn't just get away like that." The Hyuuga said as he advanced straight towards Naruto, until stopping abruptly when Kisame stepped into his path, Samehada in hand.

"Hey kid I don't know what's up with you and Konoha but you need to make a decision." Naruto looked up to meet his eyes and once more black eyes met blue. "Do you want to travel with me or go back with them?"

"It doesn't matter what he wants! The Hokage ordered us to retrieve him and that's damn well what I intend to do! And you're not going to stop me!" The Inuzuka bellowed before lunging at the swordsman. He swung his clawed hand at Kisame's face but missed as said ninja moved his head back slightly. Kisame turned Samehada around in his hand and slammed the hilt of the sword into the dog ninja's stomach sending him flying back to his previous position with his dog.

The Hyuuga was taken aback by the effortless take down of his teammate, hesitating in his planned rush at the Monster of the Mist.

"Give me an answer kid."

"...I...I want to go with you." The blond had shut his eyes and felt Kisame place a hand on his head. While he didn't know this Kisame person he _definitely _didn't want to go back to Konoha, he had been miserable there.

"Then you're going to want to keep your eyes closed for this next part alright." Kisame took his hand off Naruto's head after he felt him nod, putting his full attention on the two ninja and the ninken before him.

"Get ready because you're going to end up feeding Samehada for quite a while."

* * *

**_One Hour Later_**

"So brat, I heard those two say Uzumaki back there, that's not your first name I hope." Kisame questioned as he and Naruto walked down a dirt path. After he had killed the two ninja, he had grabbed his new apprentice, thrown him on his back and moved at all the speed his years of being a shinobi had given him for a good 45 minutes before stopping somewhere smack dab in the middle of grass country. He had decided to slowly move his way northeast into Taki no Kuni.

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki." Our hero spoke, a happy smile etched onto his face. "Soon to be kick ass shinobi."

Kisame halted his movement making Naruto stop as well while looking curiously at his new sensei.

"Why'd you stop Kisame-sensei?"

"Because, Naruto. It's time for the good stuff. I need to pass on my techniques and you want to be a ninja, so I'll be training you in several of my arts and several arts of others I happen to know. But before that we need to make you strong enough without them to the point that you only need those skills for the elite ninja in these countries. The question is...are you willing to sweat, bleed, and cry for what you dream of? Because I promise you that if you are weak in will or of heart that you won't survive what my training has in store." Kisame asked his young pupil with a completely serious look in his eyes, as if challenging him to actually accept. Naruto seemed to think about his answer for a moment. But only a moment.

"Anywhere and anytime sensei! I asked for this training and there's no way I'm backing down now! Show me what you've got!" Naruto let out a grin similar to Kisame's only without the sharp teeth, as if challenging the older ninja to beat the him into the ground. Kisame matched his grin with his own.

"Alright then! When I'm done with you, you'll be the strongest kid in the nations! Unfortunately if I went all out I'd probably kill you. So I'll go about...5 percent power. Lesson one. Dodging!"

Taking a deep breath the blond prepared himself for his defeat. Kisame had mentioned that he was an S class ninja, and even civilian children knew that S rank was the most dangerous ninja out there. But this was his second chance to realize his dream, what he had wanted for so long was back in his sight. Just within his grasp!

"Bring it on!"

* * *

**So that is that. My reboot of a story I started 4 and a half years ago that was written so badly that I had to rewrite it for my own sanity to stay intact. Hope you enjoyed and remember, favorite/follow if you want to keep up with the story. If you have any questions or just want to leave any feedback/criticism leave me a review!(seriously, criticism is absolutely welcome.) BTW this chapter was edited at 3 in the morning so if it sucks grammar wise I blame lack of sleep. And that I suck at writing. That too.  
**

**-Orthrus**


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